An Experiment On The Factors That Influence Nonverbal Communication

Involuntary or voluntary nonverbal communication are both possible. You can use nonverbal communications in many ways. We use nonverbal communications to assess a situation or person’s mood.

The society has set certain social standards for nonverbal communication. My experimentation in defying social norms was quite the opposite. I broke some of the haptic rules because human touch is easily misinterpreted. When you first meet, it’s best to stick with a simple handshake. After a long time of friendship, touching and hugging are commonplace. If you’re dating someone, it is not unusual to touch them.

First, I tried it on my partner. As we made our way to Camden East West after a conversation, I hugged my boyfriend. It was not a surprise to me, as we are accustomed to physical touch. He smiled and said goodbye. This was the typical reaction I would have expected of someone who I already knew well, so it didn’t make me feel uncomfortable.

My second choice was to test this on one of my closest friends. While we were talking, I accidentally grazed the arm of my friend. As she looked at me with a strange expression, it became clear that this action was not one society would approve of. As I was touching her, I began to smile. It was obvious that my actions were awkward.

Finally, I did my last haptic experiment with a stranger. It was my first time doing this experiment and I was very nervous. My approach was awkward because I’m normally not physical. After a few attempts, I finally found a stranger that I could use this technique on. As I had so many chances to break the rule, I decided that I would finally do it. As I was having a conversation about an injury with a fellow athlete, I reached out and touched his arm. It was difficult to see his face but I suspect he was trying to play it off that I was a very touchy person. This was not true. I felt like the conversation was getting shorter. It seemed that we were running out of topics.

This was definitely a learning process, as I needed to push myself out of comfort zones to achieve my desired results. It was fun to see who reacted differently than I expected, and if they felt the same way as I did. The interaction I had with a total stranger was very interesting, since he acted like he wasn’t trying to hurt my feeling for being so “nice”.